UTHSC Adopts Innovative Model for Student Mental Health Services

Memphis, Tenn. (February 7, 2018) – The University of Tennessee Health Science Center is increasing its attention to the mental health and well-being of its students with a focus on preventive care and intervention that could be a model for other academic health science institutions across the country.

The initiative, adopted after consultation and recommendations from national student mental health organizations, involves adding counseling personnel, improving student access to mental health services, and most importantly, moving student mental health services out of the traditional health clinic setting and into the Office of Student Academic Support Services and Inclusion (SASSI).

The move aims to take the stigma out of accessing mental health services and encourage students to view them as one more aspect of support and self-care.

SASSI offers learning resources, tutoring, inclusion services, assistance for disabled students, services for veterans, and more. SASSI is already a competitive advantage for UTHSC, according to university officials, and adding mental health counseling to it is unusual among health science centers.

National statistics are a driving factor in the university’s focus on student mental health, said Lori Gonzalez, PhD, vice chancellor for Academic, Faculty and Student Affairs. The trend of increasing numbers of students coming to campuses in need of some form of mental health counseling, prompted the university to adopt a more holistic approach, consolidating mental health services offered, linking them with academic support services, and promoting them more effectively, she said.

According to the journal Academic Psychiatry, the most prevalent psychiatric problems among students in higher education are anxiety disorders, including social phobia, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and generalized anxiety issues.

Because students at academic health science institutions face demanding schedules, substantial costs, and competition with other high-level learners, they are at even greater risk for anxiety and mental health issues. For example, the Association of American Medical Colleges reports rates of depression for medical students are 15 to 30 percent higher compared to the general population.

Now, when students at UTHSC access SASSI for academic support, they will also find a care team prepared to offer counseling services and referrals if needed. “To have the counseling delivered in conjunction with the academic support on a health science campus is a really unique model,” said Kathy Gibbs, director of SASSI.

“Education is our core mission,” Dr. Gonzalez said. “Most of these students will have been on an undergraduate campus, where there is an entity called the counseling center. So one of the things we were struggling with was, even if they are savvy users of a counseling center, it wasn’t always obvious how they would access services here.”

The university sought input and recommendations for improvements from The JED Foundation, a national nonprofit focused on the emotional health of the nation’s teens and young adults; the National Behavioral Intervention Team Association (NaBITA), which works with campuses to improve safety and foster intervention; and the National Center for Higher Education Risk Management (NCHERM), which conducted a counseling and psychological services program review.

In response to their recommendations, two master’s level mental health counselors to serve as “talk therapists” and a case manager will be added to the SASSI staff early this year. Kimberly Williams Collins, PhD, MS, counseling psychologist in University Health Services (UHS), the campus health care clinic, will provide clinical supervision. A care team with members from all the colleges on campus has been trained to identify students in need of intervention and offer help in accessing it.

University Health Services also has begun using a primary care model in which evaluation of mental health status is part of the intake and conversation with any patient seen in student health. The UHS behavioral health team includes Dr. Williams Collins, who provides counseling services to the students; a psychiatric nurse practitioner, who sees students for psychiatric medication management; and a part-time psychiatrist, who provides medication oversight and sees students. The UHS behavioral health team frequently collaborates with SASSI for cohesive behavioral health management.

“This approach ties University Health Services and SASSI together in an integrated way,” Dr. Gonzalez said.

Workshops on suicide prevention, substance abuse prevention, sexual assault prevention, wellness and resilience will be offered. Students will also be educated to recognize when their classmates exhibit signs of mental distress, and recommend SASSI for assistance.

“This gives the campus an opportunity to have a preventive approach for our students, more toward mental hygiene and self-care,” Gibbs said. “Instead of being reactive, we can be preventive, and that’s going to decrease the situations where we have to react in an emergency.”

It also helps ensure that students will be successful in their studies, as well as more diligent about self-care and resilient when facing problems in their careers.

“The demands and stress factors on professional students, where high performance is required and rapid acquisition of skills is expected, creates an intense atmosphere,” said UTHSC Chancellor Steve J. Schwab, MD. “The development of coping skills for our students is essential.”

David J. Denino, LPC, NCC, a consultant from NCHERM, said UTHSC has put itself on the cutting edge of smoothing the path of success for its students. “As more students seek help from on-campus resources, UTHSC is now in the position of doing more by treating depression, anxiety, and other maladies that commonly impair student success,” he said. “Beyond additional staffing, the university is also training current staff so that everyone on campus knows to treat mental health concerns seriously, as seriously as they treat physical illness or injuries.”

NCHERM’s Brian Van Brunt, EdD, LPC, said this approach offers “a unique model that other health science centers will want to emulate.”As Tennessee’s only public, statewide, academic health system, the mission of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) is to bring the benefits of the health sciences to the achievement and maintenance of human health, with a focus on the citizens of Tennessee and the region, by pursuing an integrated program of education, research, clinical care, and public service. Offering a broad range of postgraduate and selected baccalaureate training opportunities, the main UTHSC campus is located in Memphis and includes six colleges: Dentistry, Graduate Health Sciences, Health Professions, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy. UTHSC also educates and trains cohorts of medicine, pharmacy and/or health professions students -- in addition to medical residents and fellows -- at its major sites in Knoxville, Chattanooga and Nashville. Founded in 1911, during its more than 100 years, UT Health Science Center has educated and trained more than 57,000 health care professionals in academic settings and health care facilities across the state. For more information, visit www.uthsc.edu.Follow us on Facebook: facebook.com/uthsc, on Twitter: twitter.com/uthsc and on Instagram: instagram.com/uthsc.